Lance Armstrong To Pay Back $10 Million For Fraudulent Winnings

A court has ordered Lance Armstrong to pay the sum of $10 million to SCA Promotions, the sports insurance firm that paid his bonuses for winning the Tour de France.

“We are very pleased with this result,” said SCA’s president and founder Bob Hamman in a statement. “It is hard to describe how much harm Lance Armstrong’s web of lies caused SCA but this is a good first start towards repairing that damage.”

Armstrong has faced a series of lawsuits ever since his 2013 confession to Oprah Winfrey.

The dispute started in 2004, when Armstrong sued the company for breach of contract after the company withheld his bonus for winning the Tour de France.

The company put its reputation at risk for its stance but wouldn’t back down. It suspected Armstrong had cheated to win the race and didn’t want to pay him if he did. When the case went to arbitration in 2005, SCA Promotions attorney Jeffrey Tillotson famously asked Armstrong about banned drug use.

Armstrong replied by lying about it under oath, saying he never did. “I race the bike straight up fair and square,” he testified during the same proceedings.

Because of this denial and without convincing evidence at the time, SCA Promotions was forced to settle the case and pay $7.5 million in 2006.

But after his confession, SCA Promotions filed a suit about a month later, accusing Armstrong of fraud in an attempt to get its money back – about $US12 million, including attorneys’ fees.